Engineers have recently focused on trying to emulate the structure of the brain with artificial synapses. Now, a team of researchers have made a new artificial synapse design that works using a light-based biotechnology technique called optogenetics.
Continue Reading
The Langogo Genesis is a hand-held pocket translator, smaller than a smartphone, that uses noise-cancelling microphones to translate between more than 100 languages, while offering you a 4G WiFi hotspot while you're travelling. We've been using one for the last few weeks.
Continue Reading
Heat loss is wasted energy. If we're to successfully create smaller, more efficient technology, then the thermal energy that our gadgets waste needs to be put to better use. This new device, which works at the nanoscale where the theoretical "blackbody limit" falls apart, could be the answer.
Continue Reading
Electronic devices are made possible thanks to rare-Earth metals, but these are rare and relatively expensive. Now, scientists have found a way to combine common elements into electronically-useful compounds, which could find their way into tunable lighting and solar panels.
Continue Reading
Researchers at Cambridge University have managed to create the smallest pixels in the world, about a million times tinier than those in a phone. These new pixels could be used in huge, flexible displays that are relatively easy to manufacture and cheaper to run.
Continue Reading
The smaller and lighter electronics get, the more ways they can be used. A team of researchers has come up with a compact radar system the size of a matchbox that could be deployed in drones and other gadgets where portability and low cost are important.
Continue Reading
Although smartphones perform many tasks on their own, they're also able to make devices such as drones, robots and cameras cheaper and/or more capable by acting as their "brains." One of the latest gadgets to receive such a treatment is the humble – and potentially treasure-finding – metal detector.
Continue Reading
It can be challenging, keeping track of multiple electrical devices to see which ones are currently running, and which may be about to fail. MIT's NILM (non-intrusive load monitoring) system is designed to help, tracking the status of devices in settings such as factories, high-rises or even ships.
Continue Reading
In a new step towards truly wireless charging, engineers have developed an ultra-thin device that captures Wi-Fi signals and converts them into electricity.
Continue Reading
Every year, millions of tonnes of perfectly good food are wasted around the world because people aren't sure it's still fresh. To cut down on this, researchers at Fraunhofer are developing an infrared pocket scanner that will let food handlers determine if a food item has gone bad.
Continue Reading
See the stories that matter in your inbox every morning